Taking Pegasus By Storm
by Stone Shield
Summary: The shinobi world is somewhere in Pegasus. Awakened Wraith attack. Naruto and Hinata survive due to unexpected help. NaruHina. Rated M for future.


Taking Pegasus By Storm (Nrto / Stargate Atlantis)

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or Stargate Atlantis.

"Normal Speech"  
"**Demonic Speech**"  
"_Thought_"

* * *

Chapter 1: First Contact and Salvage

Some had even defended themselves, somewhat effectively too, but it seemed that their attackers had lost patience and decided to dispense with the subtleties and eliminate the straggling survivors, deeming them too troublesome to hunt down any longer. They'd rained fire down from the sky, flying around in dagger-like transports.

For two weeks now he'd been alone, mostly. There had been other survivors but their numbers had slowly dwindled to just him, and Hinata, though she wasn't much company as of late. An ambush had left her comatose for nearly three days now. He'd hid her in their makeshift base, a cave on the edge of Iwa. At night he would watch over her. During the day, when he could, he made runs looking for food, water, and any other survivors.

The wind shifted…and the ex-shinobi went rigid as he picked up snout-full of a repulsively familiar scent.

…They shouldn't be there!

All stealth thrown to the wind, he burst from the undergrowth at full speed. That smell, it was _them_. More importantly, they were near the cave! Launching himself from tree to tree, he grit his teeth in anger. He shouldn't have put so much distance in today. It would be several minutes before he got there.

* * *

High Above That Moment:

The Jumper slid through the gate into the empty void of space. Or at least it should have. Instead of black and empty, present were two Wraith cruisers. Almost immediately, the Lantean vessel cloaked, dissolving into the blackness, though there was no telling if it had been detected.

"Oh _crap_," John muttered under his breath as he mentally commanded the jumper to cloak itself.

"What's…oh no." Rodney, curious about the colonel's muttering, had left the back of the ship to see what had caught his attention, and paled at what he saw.

Teyla frowned at the sight before them. It always left a weight in her gut, seeing the Wraith cull their herd. "They are…feeding," she murmured, that familiar dread filling her stomach like a rock. Then she noticed what else they were doing and frowned, not understanding just what it was she was seeing. "Never have I seen the Wraith fire on their victims," pointing out the energy blasts.

"Yeah, I can see that," Sheppard acknowledged a bit sarcastically.

Worried. Scratch that. Near panic, Rodney began to hyperventilate. "Then why are we still here?!" he ranted, annoying the others.

"Sit down, Rodney," Sheppard snapped back.

Ronon, though usually quiet, had another outlook on the situation. "If they'd rather destroy the survivors-"

"Then that begs the question "Why?". Yeah, I got that. I think this deserves a closer look," Sheppard finished and brought the ship into a controlled descent to the planet's surface.

* * *

(Planetside)

The Wraith field commander observed the unconscious human female his warriors had found. In all senses of the word she looked absolutely delicious. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to have a taste, drain just a little of her life force. The odd dozen Wraith made no comment or attempt to stop him, understanding fully the chain of command and just what would happen to them if they did act. If their commander was hungry, then it was better her than them. His hand was scant millimeters from her sumptuous creamy flesh when an unholy roar echoed through the air.

Instantly on alert, stunners drawn, he and his soldiers turned in the direction of the sound. As if on cue, a figure of red, orange, and black shot out from the treeline.

"**RAARRH!**" and in a flash it was upon them. Wraith soldiers were sent flying via flesh rending clawed swipes. Their attacker was like a beast, completely instinctive, full of wrath. The battle, correction, the slaughter, lasted seconds.

Drawing ragged breaths, the wraith commander, his only remaining hand pulled out his communicator, turning it on. "…This is…Field Com…Commander Razek…The monster is here. Fire upon my…coordinates-" A shadow fell over his broken form, and looking up, Razek finally took in the form of his attacker, the bane of the Wraith in this attack, the monster. It was a human. It was surrounded by a blazing white and orange energy that seemed to flow over him as if it had a life of its own, dark runic symbols etched over it. With the blood of his soldiers, not to mention his own, dripping from its clawed hands it looked like a monster from someone's nightmares. But Razek just smirked through his own pain and bloody end. "You may…have killed me, monster, but…you will die as well….and the Wraith live on." And to spite his killer, spat some of his blood on him, moments before his world went black and the sky rained fire.

* * *

From the Jumper:

"The sensors are showing almost nothing but Wraith life signs. Wait, hold on a minute…there's a strange energy surge… Wraith life signs are dropping…INCOMING FIRE!" Although relatively far away, the energy bolts were still close enough to practically blind the occupants of the small Lantean vessel.

"What the Hell…Can they see us?" Sheppard shot at Rodney, leaning forward in his seat to peer up at the skies as if trying to see the orbiting ships.

McKay rolled his eyes, scoffing. "What is this, your first day? We're cloaked; of course they can't see us." He looked over the data on the console. "Well that's odd…The Wraith are concentrating their fire on a specific square mile of forest…"

"What the Hell could they want to destroy so bad that they're using ship to surface weaponry?" asked Sheppard in disbelief.

Rodney glared. "Well obviously I don't know that, otherwise I wouldn't have simply called it "odd"," he snapped irritably.

Teyla leaned forward in her seat. "Perhaps what the Wraith wish to destroy is the reason why they are not willing to let the inhabitants of this world survive."

The fire lasted for minutes, showing just how much the Wraith didn't want whatever they were shooting at to survive. But finally, the raining fire ceased. McKay looked back at the sensors, "There's nothing but glass left of…Hold it, the sensors are picking up life signs."

"In the middle of that?" Ronon frowned and subconsciously fingered his gun. "Wraith?"

Rodney had the sensors pull up a more thorough scan. "…No. Human, and very faint."

"Let's take a closer look and see if we can help out," offered Sheppard. "Maybe get some answers too."

"Need I remind you that the Wraith also have sensors, and will most likely try to finish what they started?" asked Rodney, exasperated.

Sheppard shrugged. "We'll just stop in and check out. Simple." Sure, simple, like anything ever was where they were involved. The cloaked ship reoriented and shot off to the direction of the new clearing that was once dense forest.

"What…" Rodney asked himself trying to make sense of the anomalous energy readings he was getting.

Barely a minute later, the ship slowly descended to the ground. The soil, now nothing but cooling molten glass, crackled beneath its weight as it landed. "Whoa! That's hot!" Sheppard exclaimed as the rear hatch lowered, wincing at the scorching heat and the smell of ozone. The air was blistering. There was no telling how long their boots would last. The soles would only last a minute or two on the shimmering hot ground before they melted away entirely.

"Sheppard!" Ronon motioned to the center of the clearing.

Words were lost at describing what they saw. All that they could say was that it was a …dome…of energy. "What the Hell?"

Sheppard cocked a brow at Rodney. "Yeah, what he said. And inconsequently, that's my line."

In time with their approach, the shifting energy slowly faded until its opaque surface became steadily more and more translucent.

"There is someone inside!" Teyla declared, making out the blurred shape of a humanoid body.

When at last the bubble destabilized and faded away completely, they had their weapons raised, ready to meet who or what was inside. To their shock and a little bit of horror, the immediate area filled with the smell of burnt meat…burnt flesh. The person, the human, what was left of them, was covered in burnt blackened skin, cracking and falling away.

"Oh I could have gone the day without seeing this. Or smelling it," muttered Rodney, doing his best to hold down his lunch.

Teyla leaned closer, noticing something. Was that… "I think there is someone else… Someone is underneath!" Reaching down to pull the person out, the unflappable Athosian nearly screamed as a charred hand caught hers by the wrist. Lacking her overt courage, Rodney did scream.

"Holy-" and in a second everyone had their weapons steadied on the supposed corpse.

"…" A shuddering, wretched breath shook the roasted human as it pulled itself off what it was protecting at an achingly slow pace. Soon enough though, what he'd been covering was revealed.

"It is a young woman," Teyla stated. She leaned down and checked for any signs of life. "And she is alive."

Sheppard looked closer. The young woman looked a little toasty, skin just a little pink from the heat, but besides that she was unhurt. "There's not a scratch on her from the weapons fire. Damn, he used his body as a shield," Sheppard murmured appraisingly.

"…Help…" They all turned to the charred man, guessing at the gender. He looked to be over the threshold of death, but he still had enough energy to speak, let alone stay conscious and not scream in pain.

The pad at Rodney's waist began to beep. Grabbing it, and tearing it upward to his eyes, McKay's face grew ashen. "Sheppard, I'm not sure if the Wraith have detected us or if they're just not finished yet, but they're charging weapons again!" he insisted fearfully. "There's a second attack incoming!"

"Alright, let's load 'em up and get outta here!" Sheppard ordered. "Teyla, Rodney, get the girl! Ronon, help me with this guy." It took all of ten seconds to load into the Jumper, and another five to leave the clearing, and they were still within a hairsbreadth of death as the energy bombardment blasted the area again.

"Rodney, as soon as we dial the gate, call for emergency medical teams to meet us," Sheppard advised. It was only by pure luck that they reached the gate without being detected further. And by the time the Wraith picked up on the stargate's activation, they were through.

* * *

"Dear Lord!" Carson gasped, taking in the crispy form before him. "How is he even alive?!" But that would have to wait, calling out orders, he went to work. "Alright, let's get him into isolation." The human briquette was speedily lifted up onto a rolling bed, taking care to be as gentle as possible.

The fact that he was alive was a miracle, or a curse when considering the damage, but it would take more to ensure he actually survived. For a burn victim, there was a danger of infection to areas of exposed tissue.

* * *

The Following Midday:

"How are our patients?" asked Dr. Weir. The expedition's medical staff had been working almost round the clock for over twenty-six hours, yet "tired" was not the way to describe the healer before them.

Dr. Beckett's eyes shone with hidden fascination at his findings. Clutching his digital clipboard, he rounded quickly on Elizabeth. "In a word: incredible."

"Are you feeling okay, doc?" asked Sheppard. "One of them was pretty much meatloafed."

"Aye, he _was_. Medium-well, in point of fact." Clicking on the display, a diagram of the young man was pulled up. It showed his initial injuries, with new scans documented every two hours, a slight difference in the pictures as time passed. "While the young woman was in the best shape, in a mild coma, he was the one we focused on. Over sixty percent of his body was charred beyond recovery," emphasizing the seriousness of his situation with the illustrations. "To be honest, I figured he'd be dead before we even got him to Medical."

"And how is that "incredible"?"

"John," Elizabeth chided before leaning forward, weight rested on her elbows. "Please, Carson, explain."

"At first I thought I was seein' things. Then, when I looked at the charts again, I ran a blood test…to make sure he was human."

"Why?" Teyla asked.

Clearing his throat, "His body is healing at a rate that is almost visible. I doubt he'll need to be in the med bay more than a week or two more."

Elizabeth bowed her head in silent pondering before raising her eyes back up. "How is that possible? The only ones we've ever met with that kind of regeneration are-"

"Yes, the Wraith," Carson finished, thus bringing home his initial concerns. "But he isn't. His DNA shows almost a complete match to the human genome…with only a few discrepancies."

"Discrepancies?" Ronon asked, commenting on what little he really understood, or cared to understand, and using a word they were all fairly certain he'd never had the chance to try before.

Prompted by that, Carson, brought up a comparative chart. "Aye. The people in the Pegasus Galaxy have a few genes that're different than our own, which is understandable given the physical distance between our galaxies. But, even compared to other Pegasus humans, the difference is still there. There are codings in his DNA that I cannot account for. Genes that I've never seen before."

"And the woman?"

He nodded. "When I discovered the deviations in his DNA, I ran hers as well. Both show expression of the ATA, which, while uncommon, isn't too far from the norm. There are similar markers among the unknown genes, but hers are nowhere near as…exotic…as his. From what we can tell, her coma was a result from bleeding in the cranial tissues, most likely from a blunt force trauma. In fact, we hope that with the medication we're giving her to relieve the swelling of her intracranial tissues that she'll wake soon."

* * *

Sometime Later:

Symbols chiming, Rodney's eyes flittered almost boredly over the massive amounts of data before him. It had taken long enough to find the files in question, now he had to read them, and hope they had some answers. The redeeming factor being that, while this was an endeavor of curiosity, it meant that he hadn't been bothered nearly as much as usual.

The file was organized into sub-files. A great bulk of it was amassed records and telemetry, but, soon enough, he stumbled onto gold.

* * *

Shortly Thereafter:

"Yes. It occurred to me that the Ancient planetary archive might not be…specific enough to give us the answers we're looking for in regard to, well, them," looking rather proud of his find upon entering her office, ops adjacent, hands shoved nonchalantly into his pockets. Elizabeth cocked her head in curiosity at the smug tone to his words. Not that the triumphant smirk slapped across his face wasn't enough to do so on its own.

A small smile crossed her lips at his infectious mood. "Don't keep me in suspense, Rodney."

"Betting on a hunch, ever the smart move on my part," thoughts meandering a little into self-praise, "Anyway, given the oddity of what we saw, I decided to check the planet's address in the science database under known addresses where the Ancients have conducted their experiments."

"It was an outpost?" she wondered aloud, her interest roused.

Cutting her off at the quick, "No," and a sharp gesture of an index finger. There were times when anyone could wonder if he was intentionally trying to be condescending. Beaming across at her, "The entire _planet_ was the experiment. Its _people_."

* * *

An impromptu meeting less than an hour later, Elizabeth had called them all to the lab McKay spent most of his time inhabiting, made more evident by the occasional whining that they shouldn't touch anything. Thus, McKay was the only one with a chair as the others took positions around him. Not that any of the papers and clutter stopped Ronon from unceremoniously seating himself on a desk, much to Rodney's ire.

Bringing up a schematic of the Ancient experiment, an early presentation of the idea, to what could be guessed as a committee overseeing special projects, McKay dove into his lengthy explanation. "The planet was an Ancient colony, one that researched in, big surprise, Ascension. Or, at least, one of its routes." Silence as they waited for further information to sate their whetted palates. Ascension was always a fun topic.

But not everyone knew about it yet. "Ascension?" Ronon mumbled, befuddled, scratching his head. "What's that?" Cunning in battle, science was another story.

Huffing at needing to explain something remedial to the rest of them, "The Ancients learned to evolve to a point whereupon they shed their physical form and became pure energy, roughly enough. But that's not the point." Though Ronon didn't seem the slightest offended by the tone, shaking it off easily.

"I'll explain it later," John muttered. Best to keep Rodney on topic or he'd never shut up. He'd whine no matter how much he liked the attention, too. All the same, best to keep him on track. "Then why don't you cut to the chase and tell us what _is_, Rodney?"

Rolling his eyes at Sheppard's childish impatience, "Moving on, for those with limited attention spans… The people there dedicated themselves to Ascension and generally advancing themselves, and, while they didn't succeed, at least as far as records show in regards to the end goal, they did manage an odd genetic adaptation."

Taking over for him, Elizabeth keyed through some text on her pad. "The reports aren't very clear, and there is a lot still to sort through, but they go on to imply that the people learned to draw out some…inner power," she supplied, having skimmed just a handful of the files, with still many…_many_…to go. The Ancients were thorough when they wanted to be. Almost redundantly so at times. "But the reports stopped before going any further into detail."

"Okay…interesting," John admitted. That is, in so far as they'd said a lot of nothing.

Rodney glared lazily back at him for the tone. "Yes, well, the data updates continued after the Ancients left the galaxy. So I'm assuming that there was, at one point, an Ancient satellite system watching over the planet. Obviously, since we didn't see it, it was either destroyed or fell to the ravages of time. Hence the sudden end of the story." Before anyone could get more than a word out, Rodney broke back in, shushing them so he could once more take center stage, as his words were the most important. "But that's _still_ not the point. Look, the planet was also the staging ground of another Ancient project, barely a century old before the Ancients left this galaxy."

Noting the almost gleeful look in his eyes, Sheppard leaned across to Ronon. "He looks like he's about to have an accident."

"An energy based lifeform capable of defending the people from the Wraith." The science alone had been enough to draw out his curiosity. "You might remember something similar. The beginning stages were based on the research they'd done on the energy devouring lifeform we had all that trouble with a year back." You'd think something like that would be hard to forget. The truth was, so much happened on a daily basis on such a scale of weird that it was like a normal day in Pegasus in the broader view. "It was a synthetically derived creature. Composed entirely of massive, and I _mean_ massive, amounts of raw, self-propagating energy. They imprinted it with a will of its own, with the express purpose of protecting the Ancients turned native, and stood back to watch." The amount of power packed in one place, actually reaching such a ludicrous density that it could manifest a physical form was staggering. Like the energy of a series of parallel maxing out ZPMs put all in a confined space.

Scoffing, Ronon seemed to find the one standout detail with that story. "Yeah, well, where was it when they were getting wiped out?"

Not quite admitting defeat, but also having no answer, Rodney had to give this one up. "I…don't know. Look, the database shows that it was a success, even if they never had the chance to make more of them, but the records stopped once the Ancients left Pegasus. Whatever happened, it occurred while they weren't here to take note of, or fix."

"Still," Teyla began, filling the sudden void. "The Wraith showed great desire to destroy the people entirely."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Elizabeth looked thoughtful. "If they achieved some great power that early on, who's to say what they managed by this point?" Optimism, gotta love it.

"Which leads into my second genius thought," Rodney interrupted. Really, did he ever shut up? On the flip-side, sometimes he did say things that were worthwhile. "That energy shield?" Faces flickered with remembrance. "There've been times where advanced people, I mean near-ascended, have exhibited similar abilities," and he let them take the thought from there.

"So, if one guy held back fire from orbit, why's everyone else dead?" Ronon wondered, scratching his beard. Rodney looked about ready to respond but fell silent, again at a loss for an answer. That was actually a good question.

"I'm kinda curious about what happened to this weapon," John questioned.

* * *

Crusted, heavy eyelids opened, lavender tinted white eyes showed bemused fatigue. Their owner, awakened by the soft continuous beeping that echoed around her, felt the dullness of her mind clear, but ever so slowly. This place, it was a hospital of some sort, she made out blearily, but not one she recognized. The soft, steady beeping grew more rapid as she tried to remember what happened to her.

Breath hitching… They were attacked!

The beeping grew insistent.

Where was she?

Where were the others?

Where was Naruto-kun?

"Easy, lass."

Muscles rebelled, stiff from lack of use, she turned her head to see a person rushing to her bedside. It did a lot to calm her seeing that he did not look like the ones who'd been attacking them. His words sounded like one of the foreign tongues. At first, she thought of Asuma. There was an uncanny resemblance, despite the unerring feeling that there was no relation.

He was obviously a doctor, given his demeanor and the kindness in his eyes.

"May I ask you some questions, darlin'?" Carson asked, his accent thick, at least to the inexperienced.

She frowned. This was…annoying. "Gomen," she croaked. Her throat felt like sandpaper, cracking as she spoke. "I can understand…a little." He'd only said a few words, but there were one or two that sounded odd, if not entirely unrecognizable.

This time it was Carson's time to frown. They so often encountered people who spoke their own language, it was a bit of a shock to hear broken English coming from the young woman. This made things more difficult. "To the best of our understanding, you've been in a coma for several days now." He hoped she could piece together enough to understand, of which he was certain when her pulse jumped on the monitor. "You and your friend are both quite lucky."

This time she looked back at him in confusion. "Friend?" she managed to ask.

Nodding, "Aye," and pointed to the side. Thinking once more that she was blind, he internally chastised himself, and was a hairsbreadth from apologizing when the girl's eyes tracked his gesture. She could see?

Muscles straining to orient herself, Hinata could see a body wrapped almost entirely in bandages. "Who…"

Carson continued. "He was badly burned, but whatever healing ability he has is regenerating the lost tissue," going into detail, but he'd lost her after the paired words "healing ability." There were only two people she knew of who could heal themselves at such a level as to draw notice. Kabuto, the Sound nin, whom Kakashi had years ago killed, and…

"Naruto," she murmured, hope filling her to the point that she forgot the honorific she always gave him. "…What happened?"

Carson's frown returned, deeper. It didn't feel right telling her what he knew as it was relatively little, and it would most likely make the apparently soft-spoken girl feel guilty. So, he avoided it. "I don't rightly know, myself, dear," he answered. "But don't you worry. By what I'm seein' he'll be up in no time," he added in hopes of giving some comfort.

Though a thoughtful gesture, it did little to sway her worries, and he could see that.

It wasn't much later that she was visited by one of the people in charge of this…place…wherever they were. It only made sense that the doctor, Carson as she came to learn, would have to inform his superiors.

She had been lost in worried thoughts over the health of a certain blonde man when a woman entered the room, coming to stop by her bed. "Good afternoon, I'm Elizabeth Weir," introducing herself and smiling kindly down at the younger woman. "My people found you and your friend while your planet was under attack from the Wraith."

The Wraith? "Were they the ones wh-who'd been attacking our village?" And not just them. They seemed to be attacking everyone. One of her latest memories was when a handful of Kiri nin had joined their ragtag group of survivors. And if it was just she and Naruto, no matter how that thought would normally fluster her, it meant that the others had been killed at some point.

The woman, Elizabeth, nodded. "From what I've been told, you were pulled out of there right as the Wraith were bombarding the planet."

"B-Bombarding?" she asked, eyes wide, hoping she'd misheard while knowing that she hadn't. Please, no… She wanted so much for it all to be a genjutsu, but there was none there to be sensed, leaving her with the deathly grim reality.

The auburn woman frowned, her features rounding in empathetic sadness. "The Wraith use advanced weapons. Their ships' weapons can turn earth to glass from the superheating. I'm sorry," she added at the look of tear-filled horror on the girl's face.

Hinata's head fell, chin resting against her chest as she tried to hide her falling tears. "I see," she whispered, so overcome that her characteristic nervous stutter lay forgotten.

So that was it? Everything she knew…all gone?

It was almost unfathomable, but what she did remember did not inspire hope.

Gone…

No…

Not everything.

There was still Naruto.

Her everything was lying in a bed just across the room.

Elizabeth didn't want to intrude on her somber, personal thoughts, but, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but could you tell me your name?" Though her face was still hidden, it was now aflame at the embarrassment of forgetting such an ingrained rule of the formal etiquette she'd spent her entire life learning. She'd been raised under so many rules, strictures, and social policies, yet she'd completely forgotten one of the most basic of them all.

"Please, forgive me," she murmured, clearing her throat just enough to remove the grief-born cracking in her voice. "I am Hinata, Hinata Hyuga," bowing as best she could in her bed-confined state.

Elizabeth nodded. Given her years of experience in diplomacy, having met and interacted with a great many people, she easily picked up on a formal education. "And Naruto…" she asked. Already, she'd heard from Carson that that was likely his name, but this was a chance for confirmation as well as embellishment.

"Uzumaki," the soft-eyed young woman amended for the still unconscious blonde.

Considering both names thoughtfully, Elizabeth glanced momentarily across to the bandaged figure. "Well, Hinata, we were all a little curious… Do you know why the Wraith were so adamant in destroying your world?" Touchily worded, but there really was no right way to ask it.

Her face now relatively dry courtesy of a sleeve of her hospital gown, Hinata lifted her head. "Is that strange?"

Blinking in outright surprise, "Then you don't know about the Wraith?" Hinata shook her head.

They had yet to meet a race in Pegasus that had yet to hear of the Wraith. Live and learn. "The Wraith are a parasitic race that feed on the life energies of others."

Hinata's face wrinkled cutely, but in regards to the initial question… "I'm not really sure "why". The last thing I remember…is hiding, finding other survivors…and then nothing."

"Then there were others?"

Hinata paused, but then nodded. "Yes, but if they weren't with us…something must've happened while I wasn't there to help."

"You were in a coma, dearie," Carson interrupted, chiding his patient for her open guilt, making himself known by stepping over to check her vitals again. "Best not to concern yourself with the "what if's" when all's said and done." Elizabeth refrained from smiling. If she hadn't need of him here, she was certain he would make the perfect small town doctor. He certainly had the demeanor down.

It was rather difficult, but now that he knew what to look for he could track her pupil dilation as he checked her pupillary response with a small light. "The medication seems to be working," before stepping back. "Though you'll probably need to take it for a few more days just to be certain."

"And your other patient?" Elizabeth asked, both for her benefit and for the young woman next to her.

"His regenerative abilities did slow down a wee bit," he informed, but was quick to add more. "But, since we added a nutrient cocktail to his i.v., his metabolism spiked and his healin' picked back up. It's astoundin' really. He shouldn' need those bandages for a few more days."

Elizabeth smiled. It was good news, but, more to the issue at hand, it looked like news their other refugee had needed to hear, as she spotted the relief in her features. "Thank you, Carson," to which he nodded.

Hinata bowed her head. "Thank you, Doctor Carson," she acknowledged lowly.

Smiling at the praise, "That's quite alright, dearie," turning and walking off to attend to the rest of his duties.

"Hinata."

"A pleasure," he answered back amiably, taking his leave.

"Thank you." Elizabeth shifted her attention back from the retreating doctor to the woman in the bed, finding her attention was back on her. "Thank you for all that you've done for us," she rephrased.

* * *

Maybe she'd been too deep in thought. For whatever reason, Elizabeth hadn't noticed John standing next to her until he spoke. "You've been spending a lot of time with our new friend." He didn't go for the plural as the other had yet to wake up. "What do you think?"

Quickly getting over being startled, "Unless that girl is the best actor in the universe, she's the sweetest person I have ever met." It was praise, but with an almost humorous undertone.

Considering her words, he couldn't help but shrug. There was no denying her appraisal. He'd stopped in on one of Elizabeth's visits and met her. Even he could see what she was referring to. "You see enough dark and stuff, at times it's hard to get used to finding the good."

Face scrunching, she sent him a look of amusement and awe. "That was very insightful, John."

"I know. I'm sorry, it'll never happen again," he teased. "That for her?" pointing at the wheelchair in front of her.

* * *

Every day, she asked if she was well enough to see Naruto. Only just this morning had the bandages come off. At least, that was what she'd been told. There was still something of a privacy curtain around him. Their healer had explained that it was because they didn't want to risk him getting sick in his weakened condition. She understood to an extent. She had basic mednin training, and knew that burn victims were often at risk from bacterial infections. It was just unknown to her if Naruto was at risk. She hadn't really told them anything substantial about either of them. She trusted these people…to an extent. As a whole, she wasn't sure, but there were individuals that she had a fair bit of faith in.

After countless denials, Carson was just finishing with her morning check-over when the Elizabeth woman came over to her with a wheelchair. "From what Carson's told me, I thought you might want to get out of that bed," looking to the doctor for pproval.

"I see no problem with that," he conceded. "Though you should remember to take it easy," he reminded, earning a thankful smile from the young woman. His words were almost in-time with her slipping her legs out of the hospital bed, and climbing into the chair, albeit shakily. She could walk, it was no secret, but he had deemed it safer for her to get around in this fashion until she recovered her full strength. "Though I'd suppose there's someone you'll be wantin' to see first," he proposed, getting wide, eager eyes in response.

Her muscles were still weakened from being inactive for so long, but sheer determination had her wheeling herself across the room at quite the pace.

Flanked by Elizabeth Weir and Doctor Carson, she wheeled herself over to the bed that'd been the focus of her thoughts for the last few days.

"We removed the isolation barrier," Carson explained. "Didn't seem to be a point in keepin' it up anymore. His wounds 'ave mostly healed. With the more serious ones taken care of, his healin' has slowed." He shook his head. "He could wake up today, or anytime in the next few days," he offered, but there was still doubt considering how little he knew of the man's physiology. With his healing… There were too many factors to account for.

Chair stopping just short of the bed, her eyes looked him over from head to toe, some part of her hesitant to see his face. As if doubting that it was really him. But soon enough… His skin was tanner, redder, raw, but whole. Only a few bandages remained, but even she could tell they were superficial, undoubtedly covering tender areas. And when her eyes alit on his face, her breath hitched in her throat before relief washed over her. That narrow face. That jawline. Golden blonde hair growing back in, patchy in spots, but just as unruly as ever.

Hiding a tear of thanks, she lost herself in a moment of silent relief. It really was him.

AN/ Another fic to see what's what.


End file.
